These are all photos I took today at the parade and service, we remember today those who had courage, those who fought for what our country believes in, for those who died, who survived and those who are out there fighting or training to serve our country.

It began to rain, and rain with serious intention not just small drips here and there. The clouds had gathered the day and night before, now they spilled their contents relentlessly upon everything below them. First just a shimmer of water could bee seen between stalks of grass on our front lawn. Then we had a massive puddle in only an hour or so.

The rain continued and the creek began to roar past, muddy and brown, spreading out and out, flowing over a nearby driveway because it could not get through the tunnel fast enough. Buckets of dirt, rocks, leaves, sticks things left lying too close to the creek were swept away. Our tame little creek that does not normally even have water in it turned into a brown foaming monster.

Water rushed on, the dam doubled in size, tripled and spewed over.

All the water splashed down into another creek and out into the Hunter River, it rose and continued rising. Roads were blocked, are still blocked. Nearby towns were flooded, a house washed down the street. Roads slick with rain, a fatal accident. The water rose and entered houses destroying many possessions. Hundreds of houses and even a hospital without power. 

Cloud and mist obscured the horizon, hills grew distant, or dropped completely away.

The sun comes out and droplets sparkle, plants that were not broken by winds are growing, flourishing, turning a brighter green.

God's promise appeared in the sky

Our God is more powerful than the raging waters, more unstoppable than the rain, more beautiful than the new life, eternal, unlike us, and brings so much more joy and hope than a rainbow.

One of my lovely sisters and my brothers

Dreaming

Such a cutie

Climbing up scaffolding

One of my little hens

another hen

I am selling this plant on facebook and you are really only meant to comment to buy or inquire... but people have commented on this photo and others saying how pretty the photo is :D

I actually enjoyed it. Well I enjoyed it once it was happening but not for the days before. Yesterday A few days ago our Bright Lights group went to a nursing home and sang for some of the residents. I was the eldest (of our group, not the old people) and responsible for the nine other young ladies, all but three of which were taller than me. I drove seven of the girls there (our car only holds eight people), that was slightly scary. Then we went into the nursing home. It was a little awkward because it took a while to actually find any of the staff. Then we were take to the dementia ward. Because we had forgotten So we could sing for the residents there. 

I had already worked out where everyone would stand and all the girls remembered so that went smoothly. Jane stood at one end and played the flute. After a few song one of the women asked if we could bow or something at the end of each song so they would know when to clap. So I curtsied since I had a long skirt on. I always knew it would come in handy to learn to curtsy properly back when for some reason I did.

I was moved while singing "Trust and Obey" as we got to the chorus I could hear a few quiet voices in other parts of the room and looking about I could see the many of the residents mouthing the words to the song. As we finished one woman said "It has been years since I heard that." We were thanked many times.

As we got to the sixth song I said "This is the last song" and whatever it was called. We were asked to sing again, we managed to sing all six songs again, I figured most of the residents would have forgotten we had just sung them before so it would be as though we were singing new songs each time. The only problem with singing them again was the breathing factor. Despite what you may think breathing is slightly  important. After the six songs I felt a little light headed, but when I curtsied for the second last song I stumbled and nearly fell right over because I was so dizzy. 

Still everyone enjoyed the experience and we were asked to come again next school holidays. One of the staff mentioned how amazing it was that a group of young people would give up their free time for others. It was just a wonderful feeling to be able to do that, young people can make a difference. And those that do really stand out because they are so different from other people their age.

No that photo has nothing to do with singing at the nursing home except it happened on the same day. Later that afternoon an epic sword fight raged from our front yard up to the neighbors a few houses away. And there a knife thrower joined in.

Swords got dented, scratched, chipped. They parried and whacked at other swords and shields. Watchers were randomly stabbed. Missing limbs, and how dead people were were debated. And after all that I was the only one who did not get shot... as it was me doing the shooting. People (like me) were pronounced dead two seconds after a minor slash in the leg, even though I had been "shooting" the knife wielder the entire time she was charging at me. The epic battle raged. 

 Until eventually one of the throwing knives got sorta smashed.  

Quite a fun afternoon really. If you are interested in the making of the swords, have a look at this post on the master craftsman's blog. For a more detailed account of the epic battle, and from one of the sword master's point of view check out this post on my sisters blog.

And here is the last part. If you have not read parts One and Two then it would make much more sense to do so before reading part three.

To refresh your memory; Turning, she gazed a moment at the children. Jill stepped up next to her, “They are so sad. Can we help?” she whispered. The lady’s eyes sparkled. Keeping her voice low the lady replied, “Yes, help me get their halters off.” Her eyes went to Col’s pocket.

I thought this photo I took yesterday would go well! I did edit a little horn in...

Jill held out her hand with the shining figure in it, “Are these yours?”

“No dearest, but they are a sign. Keep them, and guard them well.” The lady’s pure white hair fell glimmering over her shoulder as she bent and closed Jill’s fingers around the unicorn.

Jill, Col and the white lady moved among the carousel beasts, and the harpist played. Col struggled with a silver buckle, but finally it undid and he slipped one halter off. He put it over his arm and slipped another off. Jill watched the woman, she had only to touch a halter and it slid off or broke with a tinkle. She placed each one into a pouch at her side.

As the last halter jingled into the bag, the lady spoke again, “You may hop on if you like, they won’t mind.” She motioned to the carousel beasts.

Who won’t? Jill wondered, but she did not intrude on the sound of the music which now swelled, humming along shafts of moonlight. The carousel began to spin, faster and faster. Wind whipped saddle cloths and tassels and gripped at the children’s delighted grins, the mystical unicorn appeared. This time something different happened though. The creature galloped forwards. Loud cracking and snapping noises pierced the night. Both children felt a strange warmth under them. Hair blew into Jill’s face, and she lost grip of the twisted pole. Her hands found only soft hide of an animal and hair, long thick, silver hair. Jill’s teeth clacked together as hooves hit the ground. Wide eyed, Jill looked at the moonlight shimmering all around her. The moonlight had hair and legs, hooves and bodies. Jill felt herself slipping and grabbed larger handfuls of the hair. The saddle fell to the ground, but Jill stayed astride. Col, on one of the inner unicorns had not yet broken free.

All the beasts that had transformed cavorted around, making it hard for Jill to see exactly what happened. In a moment all the creatures were free. Shouts came from the town, focused illumstones flashed out into the moonlight. Jill noticed that the music had stopped, and the black haired minstrel completely disappeared. People came running. The unicorns ran too, with the same speed that the carousel had turned at before. The last coloured saddle and blanket thumped to the ground. Forty nine gleaming unicorns disappeared into the trees. All glowed white except for the one which had a mane and tail black as the deepest shadow. That one had a different horn to the rest and also still carried a pack of some kind, very oddly shaped.

Col and Jill found themselves standing just outside the entrance of the inn they had crept out of only minutes before. The white lady touched each of their heads. “Guard your charges well, they are not living but they have power, when you are older you may find it. Peace now, in you go.”

The twins crept back into the inn. Out the window they thought they saw a last flash of silver hair and heard hoof beats, yet not a trace of the lady that just bid them farewell. “Unless,” Jill and Col whispered in the same breath, “Unless…” They both looked at each other sharing the thought. As sleep pushed their eyelids closed, a fiftieth unicorn, whiter even than the others, and with a smooth horn, galloped in the direction of the others.

A sketch I did with some other randomness added...

I hope that finished in a "finished" way, but after all it is just a small story set in a greater one..... the greater one is just not finished yet. If you have any questions though I'll answer them if there are answers to them. So ask away and tell me what you thought.

If you haven't read part 1 then do so here. If you have then here is part 2 that you have not been waiting all that long for, but hopefully part one was good enough that you really wanted to know what happens next.

To refresh your memory; Jill had just been chucked off the carousel and "One drop of salty water trickled slowly down her face followed by others."

From where Col sat he had a good view of the whole event. For a moment he looked at his sister then back to the beautiful white beast. His little hands twisted around the pole that held up his steed and made it fly. He bit his lip then swung his leg over the unicorn and slid down. Giving it one last pat he wound his way between the other elegant creatures towards his sister, just as the music began again.

They sat together; Col wound his fingers around Jill’s. Together they listened to the music and watched the unicorns dance around again, whirling faster and faster. Clothes and tassels flapped, children screamed, some in joy others with fright at the speed, and again the mysterious beast appeared just for a moment galloping on the spot.

Children tumbled off and more ran to get places. Col and Jill went back to their parents. Jill whispered, “Somehow it would not be the same, maybe later we can ride it.” A strange sadness filled the hearts and minds of the two youngsters, it may be thought to have come from the fact that they were taken from their ride, that is not so, it came from something much deeper, they themselves had no idea. Jill could not dispel the look in the unicorn’s blue eyes from her mind.

Stalls were set up everywhere, banners rippled out from poles and trees. The glow of illumstones became more noticeable. The family walked into a nearby stall. The children forgot their sorrow upon seeing the beautiful trinkets. Jill at once moved over to look at an unusual object which, upon inspection, turned out to be a miniature carousel, with only four unicorns prancing around it. They were encased in a hard substance. Jill lifted it carefully, as she moved it, silver and gold sparkles floated around the animals, her mouth parted in wonder. “So beautiful,” she whispered.

A small round man, the stall keeper, hurried over and snatched the carousel from her hands. “That, my dear, is not for sale. That, little one is real gold and silver it is made from, and the stone casing, well, no one except a great lord,” The man gestured vaguely northwards and flung his arms wide.

A magnificent crash made everyone cringe; Jill jumped back as fragments of the tiny carousel hit her. The man’s dark face grew darker. He glared at his hand which still held the gold and silver base, and then back towards a tent pole behind him. His mouth opened and shut a few times, Jill backed further, and her foot kicked something as she ducked behind Father. Stooping she picked the small object up. At the same moment Col gazed in astonishment at the piece of carousel that had literally flown across the room into his hands. A tiny white figure of a unicorn decked with gold and silver lay shining on his palm.

Mother and father never noticed the little figures in their son’s and daughter’s hands as they pushed them out of the stall before them. They all wandered around the fair looking upon many wonders and great sights, but soon it grew very late and they went to an inn beside where the fair sprouted. The distance to their own house was not great but dark cloaked men roamed the roads at night.

Col and Jill looked out the window; they could both just glimpse the carousel. Then they slipped off their shoes and snuggled next to each other, listening to their parents breathing and the minstrels at the fair. A model unicorn lay with fingers curled around it; the other poked its head out of a pocket in Col’s shirt. Many parts of the fair grew silent and were packed away, ready to travel off the next day. All the inns and drink-houses in the town overflowed. Of the minstrels by the carousel only the harpist played, softly, ever so softly. The music wound it way into the night, calling.

The greater moon rose up, closely followed by the second. Silver light spilled through the open window and splashed down onto the children’s bed. Jill sat upright as something prickled at her hand, light shone from between her fingers. She nudged Col, and pressed a finger to her lips. The two tiny unicorns glittered in the moonlight, glowing of themselves.

Four little feet pattered across the floor and slipped into shoes then out the door. Two faces peered into a lighted room then backed away and padded out a different, smaller door, out onto cobbles that reflected back the moonlight. Not a word passed between the children as they crept through the trunks of great trees towards the fair.

One illumstone shone white into the shadows. The minstrel sat near it and another lady moved noiselessly towards the carousel. The minstrel jumped as Col stepped on something, her music, though, did not falter. Jill and Col followed the other lady onto the carousel. A white light reflected off the young lady’s silver dress, she moved among the carousel poles running her hand up each creature’s horn.

Turning, she gazed a moment at the children. Jill stepped up next to her, “They are so sad. Can we help?” she whispered. The lady’s eyes sparkled.

Keeping her voice low the lady replied, “Yes, help me get their halters off.” Her eyes went to Col’s pocket.

This is my entry (with a few changes) for this months future home school authors writing competition. There is still a week to go to enter if you want. I will post it in parts because a 2340 word blog post is just to long. This story happens in the world and time of the story I am currently writing. (Called "The Relinquished") The world, or the known part anyway is called Elsewhere. 

I have been making this picture for a long time and finally got around to finishing it so I could use it on this post.

So here is part one of; Carousel

Eyes wide with excitement and mouths agape the twins walked towards the carousel. The moment they had wished for all their short lives had come. They stood with many other children in front of the greatest carousel in all of Elsewhere. A week ago their lives had changed in a moment when Father walked into the room announcing that the fair had arrived in town and he had bought tickets for the last night. Gillian had dropped her book with a thud and Colin had been gabby about the fair ever since.

The sun lingered in the sky, glinting off the magnificent scrollwork and shining on the smooth carousel creatures. Everyone knew they did not really exist, but one could almost believe that they could, or did once, the two young children found it especially easy. These creatures, unicorns some called them, were so beautiful, nothing like the camels everyone rode, or the twargs and goats. They were daintier, nobler, than any real creature. The colour of the twisting pole of each beast corresponded to their one twisted horn that glowed in the sunlight.

Children clambered onto the carousel, the line grew rapidly shorter as children left to choose a mount, Colin glanced at Gillian with eyes shining. “We’ll be on next round Jill; will you take one on the outside row? I want one on the inside that moves up and down as well as round.”

“D’know Col, any’ll do, I just wish they were real, that we had creatures like that in Elsewhere. Wouldn’t riding one of those be grand, one that really moved.”

“How would you stay on though? There’s no hump to hold onto and their horn is too far forwards,” Col replied.

“Oh I think if they were t’let us, then we wouldn’t fall, they’d make sure of that,” Jill whispered.

The unicorns began to spin slowly around, the inside two rows rising up and down again. Faster and faster they spun, until if you watched just one place a creature could be seen, white, striding along tossing its head, moving through the poles as if in a dance. The laughter and shouts of children’s joy echoed out, mingling with the song and strings of a jet black haired harpist sitting against a nearby tree. Watching adults smiled, listening to the music while their children enjoyed the carousel.

All too soon the music faded and the mysterious unicorn disappeared. The carousel became still once again, except for the children swarming off it. Col grabbed his sister’s hand and ran towards the carousel.

Col twisted between the unicorns until he came to one wearing green. A light green saddle rested on a darker cloth with silver tassels hanging from the edges. Col smiled and ran his hand over the beast’s neck feeling the hard smoothness and then touching the real leather and cloth.

“I wonder why all your outfit’s not made of the same cool, hard stuff as you are? Perhaps to make it feel more real. I would think that having real tack makes you much harder to clean.” Col thought back to the many evenings he spent beside his father polishing metal buckles and rubbing fat into leather until it shone.  Col settled himself into the saddle and reached forward to touch the headstall. Fine chains of what looked almost like real silver and the softest shimmering cords made up the headstall. He sat back and straightened his shoulders. Fitted out with such finery, he could be a lord riding on a steed.

Jill likewise sat upon an elegant beast. It had a delicate halter of gold thread and chain, with pink flowers twined into it. A real beast, Jill thought, would snap such delicate straps in moments. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, a slight fragrance wafted through the air. Jill glanced around with narrowed eyes. Why, she wondered, should she smell flowers, here in the middle of a fair? She looked again at the flowers in the halter, in the dusk light they could be real, leaning closer to them she thought the smell grew stronger. Jill climbed up and stood on the saddle, leaning along the creature’s neck she breathed in. The smell certainly came from the flowers. Yet how could it?

She leaned out further. Music started and the ride jolted forwards. With a shriek Jill crashed down and landed beside the pearly pink hooves of her unicorn. Yells came from watching adults and children around her. For a moment she just lay there, and then a hand grasped her arm, hauling her up. She caught a glimpse of the unicorns soft blue eyes, then found herself looking into two beady brown eyes.

“Young un get off now, we can’t have the ride disturbed.” The tall, beared man in long boots hauled Jill off the carousel and dumped her a fair distance away before she even had time to protest. As the man marched back to the carousel Jill called after him, “Wait please Sir, please.”

The man did not even turn around. Jill fell to the dusty ground. One drop of salty water trickled slowly down her face followed by others.

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I should really call this post "weeds" or something of the like, because I think every one of these plants that are flowering at the moment are weeds.

Box-thorn bush

We call these carpet plants, because they spread allover the ground.. and are really hard to pull out.

Farmers Friends otherwise known as stickybeaks

We are really getting some beautiful coloured leaves now. As we were walking down a friends driveway I spotted these trees and just had to stop and take some photos of the beautiful leaves. The colours were so beautiful even on that cloudy day. I got a more golden look by telling the camera to use a "In the shade" white balance. The ones with a proper white balance did not capture the colour like I wanted it too. Of course I had the camera on manual mode. I like manual cameras, but not manual cars!

Well today I have decided to enter a photo into this months I Heart Faces photo challenge. The theme is Pastel. There are a ton of lovely photos already entered in it, but anyway I shall put one in too.

To see more entries go here.